[OpenIndiana-discuss] BAD WD drives - defective by design?

Tue Aug 30 06:38:20 UTC 2011

This is not a TLER issue. If it were, I'd be seeing media errors on the drives in question over time, which isn't the case. Also, WD drives, TLER or not, seem to work quite well with direct attach, just not on this LSI/supermicro SAS expander.

Also, flashing drives with TLER firmware stopped working about a year ago, so unless someone has come up with a new hack...

roy

----- Original Message -----
> the WD drives have a what WD call TLER, that is a setting that defines
> how long the drive trys to read a bad sector before giving up at
> returning an error. The raid edition does this almost instantly and
> the
> RAID hardware / ZFS can then decide what to do. The non RAID edition
> retries for a long time before returning and error which result in
> RAID
> hardware and ZFS thinking the drive is dead an not responding at all.
> 
> Search google for WDTLER and download the windows program and see if
> it
> allows your drive to be changed. I believe WD has stopped it working
> on
> the latest cheap non RAID drives. For this resaon I by Hitachi, soon
> the
> only choice will be the WD RAID or Seagate. I am trying to squeeze in
> one last Hitachi upgrade to 3TB in at the moment.
> 
> John
> 
> 
> On 29/08/2011 22:22, Rennie Allen wrote:
> > I think Rich was suggesting using 4k sectors on the file system, not
> > asking
> > what the drives sector size was.
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 2:15 PM, Roy Sigurd
> > Karlsbakk<roy at karlsbakk.net>wrote:
> >
> >> All drives have 512b sector sizes, WD FASS (blacks) and WD EADS
> >> (greens)
> >> both use plain old 512 sectors.....
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >>> The drives are attached to a backplane?
> >>>
> >>> Try using 4k sector sizes and see if that improves it - I've seen
> >>> and
> >>> been part of a number of discussions which involved this - and
> >>> you, I
> >>> think, actually.
> >>>
> >>> - Rich
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 5:07 PM, Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> >>> <roy at karlsbakk.net> wrote:
> >>>> Hi all
> >>>>
> >>>> It seems recent WD drives that aren't "Raid edition" can cause
> >>>> rather a lot of problems on RAID systems. We have a few machines
> >>>> with LSI controllers (6801/6081/9201) and we're seeing massive
> >>>> errors occuring. The usual pattern is a drive failing or even a
> >>>> resilver/scrub starting and then, suddenly, most drives on the
> >>>> whole
> >>>> backplane report errors. These are usually No Device (as reported
> >>>> by
> >>>> iostat -En), but the result is that we may see data corruption at
> >>>> the end. We also have a system setup with Hitachi Deskstars,
> >>>> which
> >>>> has been running for almost a year without issues. One system
> >>>> with a
> >>>> mixture of WD Blacks and greens showed the same errors as
> >>>> described,
> >>>> but has been working well after the WD drives were replaced by
> >>>> deskstars.
> >>>>
> >>>> Now, it seems WD has changed their firmware to inhibit people
> >>>> from
> >>>> using them for other things than toys (read: PCs etc). Since
> >>>> we've
> >>>> seen this issue on different controllers and different drives,
> >>>> and
> >>>> can't reproduce it with Hitachi Deskstars, I would guess the
> >>>> firmware "upgrade" from WD is the issue.
> >>>>
> >>>> Would it be possible to fix this in ZFS somehow? The drives seem
> >>>> to
> >>>> work well except for those "No Device" errors....
> >>>>
> >>>> Vennlige hilsener / Best regards
> >>>>
> >>>> roy
> >>>> --
> >>>> Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> >>>> (+47) 97542685
> >>>> roy at karlsbakk.net
> >>>> http://blogg.karlsbakk.net/
> >>>> --
> >>>> I all pedagogikk er det essensielt at pensum presenteres
> >>>> intelligibelt. Det er et elementært imperativ for alle pedagoger
> >>>> å
> >>>> unngå eksessiv anvendelse av idiomer med fremmed opprinnelse. I
> >>>> de
> >>>> fleste tilfeller eksisterer adekvate og relevante synonymer på
> >>>> norsk.
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list
> >>>> OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> >>>> http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> >>>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list
> >>> OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> >>> http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> >> --
> >> Vennlige hilsener / Best regards
> >>
> >> roy
> >> --
> >> Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> >> (+47) 97542685
> >> roy at karlsbakk.net
> >> http://blogg.karlsbakk.net/
> >> --
> >> I all pedagogikk er det essensielt at pensum presenteres
> >> intelligibelt. Det
> >> er et elementært imperativ for alle pedagoger å unngå eksessiv
> >> anvendelse av
> >> idiomer med fremmed opprinnelse. I de fleste tilfeller eksisterer
> >> adekvate
> >> og relevante synonymer på norsk.
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list
> >> OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> >> http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> >>
> >
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> The contents of this e-mail and any attachment(s) are strictly
> confidential and are solely for the person(s) at the e-mail
> address(es) above. If you are not an addressee, you may not disclose,
> distribute, copy or use this e-mail, and we request that you send an
> e-mail to admin at stirling-dynamics.com and delete this e-mail. Stirling
> Dynamics Ltd. accepts no legal liability for the contents of this
> e-mail including any errors, interception or interference, as internet
> communications are not secure. Any views or opinions presented are
> solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of
> Stirling Dynamics Ltd. Registered In England No. 2092114 Registered
> Office: 26 Regent Street, Clifton, Bristol. BS8 4HG
> VAT no. GB 464 6551 29
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses MessageLabs.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list
> OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss

-- 
Vennlige hilsener / Best regards

roy
--
Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
(+47) 97542685
roy at karlsbakk.net
http://blogg.karlsbakk.net/
--
I all pedagogikk er det essensielt at pensum presenteres intelligibelt. Det er et elementært imperativ for alle pedagoger å unngå eksessiv anvendelse av idiomer med fremmed opprinnelse. I de fleste tilfeller eksisterer adekvate og relevante synonymer på norsk.